Fragments
by RowenaR
Summary: Eliot always prided himself to be good at controlling everything... but Parker was always good at shaking things up anyway.
1. Prologue: Need Another Story

**Author:** RowenaR

**Rating:** T

**Category:** romance

**Disclaimer:** Leverage... belongs to people who are not me (because, trust me, if I owned it, you't know it) but I'd still like to play around with the characters. Especially Eliot. In _writing_, people. Sheesh, get your mind out of the gutter.

**Summary: **Eliot always prided himself to be good at controlling everything... but Parker was always good at shaking things up anyway.**  
**

**A/N: **Okay, um... virgin fic in this fandom, so please be gentle :S Originally, _Need Another Story_ was planned as a simple one-shot to get me out of the routine of writing Stargate but it turned into a series of one-shots. _Need Another Story_ is now the prologue and takes place some time during Season One, somewhere in the second half, I'd say. Also, everyone please thank my beta **mac** who agreed to edit this although she has never seen an episode of Leverage in her whole life and normally beta's my Stargate stuff. Every mistake in content is entirely my fault, not hers. _She_ is made of awesome ;)

Anyway, as always: Not a native speaker, so please excuse any weird grammatical constructions, run-ons and typos. Feedback will earn you a cookie, flames will roast my marshmellows.

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**Fragments**

**Prologue: Need Another Story**

_"I need another story_  
_Something to get off my chest_  
_My life gets kind of boring_  
_Need something that I can confess."_

_One Republic, "Secrets"_

For someone whose entire existence depends on secrecy and lies, Parker is remarkably straight forward. Insane, yes, but honest. Alright, so sometimes he's not quite sure if one doesn't determine the other but it's a fact that there isn't anything secretive about Parker. It was about the first thing that he realized about her and it had startled him a bit – more than her strange affinity for jumping out of windows as her preferred escape strategy, actually. And he's _not_ a man to be startled easily.

So yes, no one knows why or how or when Parker became the nut job she is today but the important thing about it is that she doesn't hint at her past or make strange allusions or use it to mess around with anyone's head – well, anyone's but hers, probably. She doesn't flirt with it, like Sophie sometimes does with her baggage with Nate to get what she wants. Parker doesn't even use it to make excuses for her often less than stellar whims and notions. In fact, if it hadn't been for Belgrade, they maybe never would have learned that bit about Parker having grown up with foster parents.

At first he hadn't wanted to admit it but Parker's way of keeping secrets without ever making a fuss about them is what earned her his grudging respect. He may have some shady spots in his past that he isn't proud of but it's not like he doesn't have moral standards; and honesty is one of the most important things that he values. Nate's drinking is bad because it makes him lose control and therefore endangers all their lives but what's even _worse_ about it is that Nate _lies_ about it, to himself and to them.

Parker... Parker doesn't play games. Yes, she messes with their heads but when she has her own agenda, she doesn't talk about it and manoeuvre around; she _acts_. When she wants to rescue orphans in Serbia, she simply sneaks away and breaks into the weapons dealers' warehouse, without any plan at all. Granted, from a strategic point of view that had been the most stupid thing he had ever seen anyone do but what had impressed him about it had been her determination and dedication.

Until that moment, he'd been wary of her, had tagged her as the one team member most likely to double-cross them or just walk away one day and leave them hanging. People whose primary love in life is money have a way of doing that when a higher bidder appears on the scene. So he'd tried to keep an eye on her, to protect the team from any possible harm she might bring them. That little extra trip in Belgrade had taught him that there _are_ things more important to Parker than just money. He's still not quite sure if she won't get them all killed or arrested or both one day but he's starting to get the feeling that it won't be because she sold them out.

It'll probably rather be because she gets one of her crazy ideas and doesn't think about consequences or plans at least a little ahead. One of these days... it'll get her killed. Her jump out of the window in Miami had been proof of that because he had _believed_ her when she had said that she hadn't known that there would be someone outside to catch her. Parker doesn't lie about such things – in fact he wonders what she _does_ lie about – and that's what keeps him thinking about it. Ever since then he can't stop fretting about it, wondering what would have happened if he hadn't been there... and what _could_ happen when one day he _won't_ be there.

So he still keeps an eye on her... but now it's rather that he's _looking out_ for her, be a little more sensitive to her moves during a job, to be there in case she feels the need to dive out of a window or stab a weapons dealer with a fork again. He's learned a lot about her that way and he's starting to realize that she has grown on him. He doesn't really know how or when exactly it happened but she managed to get under his skin although he'd promised himself he'd never let a woman get under his skin again after Aimee.

Right now, Parker is far from being what Aimee was for him – and she will probably never _be_ exactly that because she's as different from Aimee as can be – but there's a certain prickle in his neck and a certain tingle on his skin when he looks at her in certain moments that tell him that she could be dangerous to him, in a whole different way than he'd expected her to be.

It irritates him because he knows there would be no happy ending for them – _everything_ inside of him tells him so – and he never was that kind of man to walk into his ruin open-eyed. He likes to plan ahead, be in control of himself, the situation, the enemy; and Parker starts to complicate everything. Right now, they're teammates, working together but not getting into each others' spaces when the jobs are done and Hardison's ear bugs are back in their case and he _likes_ it that way. Keeps everything clean and easy. If that changes... things get messy and he hates that.

Apparently, his best guess then is to steer clear of her, stop watching her, stop _thinking_ of her... and he absolutely would if she'd _let_ him. But she seems to be always there, most of all when he doesn't expect her. Like... now. Ah, fuck.

He'd just wanted to get a coffee but there she is again, lounging around in the office kitchen and he's ready to beat a tactical retreat but unfortunately she already saw him and gives him one of those pointed looks with her head a little bent down and the eyebrows raised and _no way_ he will give her the satisfaction of seeing him fleeing the scene.

So he just turns his lips into the hint of a smirk and walks in, to refill his cup and then leave, all deliberately slow and casual. He doesn't look at her and she's now behind him but for some reason he feels the hairs on his arms raise, just like when an opponent behind his back gets ready to attack him. Steady... steady... and now leave the room, just keep it normal... He's tempted to add a little Kentucky horse trainer swagger to it but decides against it. Almost at the door, almost... "'scuse me, Eliot."

There's a little sardonic grin on her face as they stand in the door frame, practically nose to nose and she even... goes as far as raising her eyebrows again and run her tongue along her teeth... and pucker her lips just a little bit. Just for a very, very short moment he sees himself grabbing her and shoving her against the wall, kissing her, tasting those puckered lips, feeling that lithe body against his, burying his hands in her blonde hair... _fuck_.

Realizing he needs to _end_ this, he turns his lips into a smirk, raises an eyebrow and steps aside... even motions for her to take precedence and drawls, "After you, Miss." She gives him a sassy little grin and saunters past him... apparently fully aware of what that is doing to him and he realizes he's too far gone already. In fact... he's screwed. Oh just great. It means... he has to reassess the situation and his judgement of Parker - maybe there's nothing secretive about her but he was probably wrong about her not playing games - and he better... he better start. As in _right now_. Yeah, good plan.


	2. You Can Dance

**A/N:** First of all, thank you for welcoming me to this fandom with your nice reviews. It's been ages since I ventured into a new fandom so I wasn't used to that anymore. It's nice to know people liked my first try at Leverage fic so you're getting the second one-shot now: Sophie teaches Parker to dance and Eliot can't help but watch (taking place late in the first half of Season Two). Also, I have an _amazing _beta. **Mac** still hasn't seen an episode of Leverage but she managed to give me snark in her beta notes for this one and snark is really the best thing about her notes! And last but not least: special thanks to **sararandom** for the elaborate review (I really love elaborate reviews!) and the hint about a story from Parker's POV. Of all the Leverage characters I find Parker the hardest to grasp and originally had wanted to stay away from writing her (so as not to butcher the character) but then again... I can never resist a challenge for long so I guess there _will _be a Parker POV story lurking somewhere in the future...

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**You C****an Dance**

"_You can dance  
Every dance with the guy who gives you the eye  
Let him hold you tight  
You can smile  
Every smile for the guy who'd like to treat you right  
'Neath the pale moonlight  
But don't forget who's takin' you home  
And in who's arms you're gonna be  
Oh, darlin' save the last dance for me."_

_The Drifters, "Save The Last Dance For Me"_

He wonders if they're aware that he's watching them. Technically they should be since he's not lurking around the corner or something but sitting at the desk in their hotel suite in plain sight where he's supposed to go over plans and find tactical weaknesses in the building crucial to their job while Nate and Hardison place the bait for their next mark. Well, operative word being _supposed to_.

Since Sophie decided it was imperative for the coup that Parker needs to dance, she's been trying to teach Parker a few basic steps of the most important standard dances. Right now they're at the Cha Cha, if he got that right and Parker looks just a little bit unhappy. He can see the pout forming at Sophie's gentle but determined prodding and correcting and he's pretty sure there's one of Parker's rather interesting reactions to frustration lurking just around the corner.

Right now, though, it _looks_ like Sophie still has everything under control. Expertly, she maneuvers Parker through the small space they made themselves for dancing and distracts her by talking to her, instructing her on the tricky art of dancing small talk. She makes a little joke and that makes Parker grin. If he didn't know better… he'd say Sophie was flirting with Parker like she would flirt with a mark to keep him or her from noticing the actions of the rest of the team.

But of course Sophie would never do that to any of them. Except of course she does whenever she sees fit to do it – they would never have gotten Nate to steal the Davids if she hadn't at least _tried_ to do so – and he's pretty sure she tried it on him as well. Oddly enough, he doesn't resent her for it, like Nate always does. Then again, he doesn't have the same kind of history with her that Nate does… and thank God for that.

Of course he finds her attractive. You would have to be dead – he's got the feeling that being gay wouldn't help anything against her sophisticated British elegance and lovely charm – not to find her attractive but first off she's Nate's girl from head to toe and you don't lay a finger on the boss's girl. And second… right now he finds it a lot harder to take his eyes off _Parker_.

He'd really like to tell himself that it has a lot to do with what Hardison told him about Parker's little stunt when they had tried to steal the David maquette because ever since then he can't help but wonder now and then if Parker's as flexible as that when she's doing _other_ things.

But the thing is… while he covertly watches the two women moving through the room it's not only Parker's natural and almost _innocent_ gracefulness that keeps him looking but also the pouts and the grins and little smiles she lets show through when she mastered another combination of steps. The pony tail that's swishing from side to side when Sophie attempts a quickstep with her. The fingers that weave through Sophie's when she teaches her how to hold her arms during a waltz. The naked feet that bounce around when Parker masters the groundwork of the samba.

Deliberately, he looks away to make another attempt at concentrating but there's a half-smile on his face, just for a moment. A few months ago, before the walk away, he'd struggled with not letting Parker get under his skin and he'd been pretty successful at that. Or… well, at telling himself that.

_Anyway_… the point here is that… ironically, the moment he'd realized he was powerless against her had been _after_ the walk away. He'd been deep inside Pakistan, doing 'hinky' stuff as Hardison had called it and had found himself thinking of that blonde pony tail and those long fingers more often than he would have liked to and at some point… he'd just realized that she was on her own now, with no one to catch her outside the windows she liked to jump out of so much.

Of course that had been an absurd thought because if there's one person in the world perfectly capable of taking care of herself, it's Parker, insanity and all. Still… he'd been ridiculously relieved when he'd gotten a simple message from her with a date and a theatre name, informing him of Sophie's theatre engagement in Boston. And he'd been even more relieved when he'd actually seen her – although he never tell anyone about _that_ – and ever since then he simply gave up fighting her and the effect she has on him. Doesn't make it easier to live with her _but_ it makes living with _himself_ really less of a pain in the ass.

Aw, damn. Going over the plans in the vicinity of Sophie and Parker swishing through the room and chattering away and… and… being _women_ was a bad idea. He just… can't concentrate. He used to be so good at that, really, but working and practically living with those people made him soft. Really should do something about that, at least.

Determinedly, he gets up and starts to gather his plans together to take them to the room he's sharing with Hardison and go over them in peace… but then he makes the mistake of looking up again and sees that there isn't just a little pout forming on Parker's face again but a genuinely upset expression. Something doesn't work the way she wants it to go and it gets to her that she just can't conquer whichever dance Sophie is trying to teach her now. It's not the face of a petulant child but that of a person who's on the brink of despair because it just won't click.

He frowns and watches a little more closely and it turns out after a few moments that after nearly two hours of working their way through every major standard dance it's the mambo – the goddamn _mambo_ of all dances – that Parker can't wrap her feet and her head around. Right now, he's infinitely grateful that Hardison isn't here because he's pretty sure that he wouldn't survive even one round of 'This is my dance space. This is your dance space.' and 'I carried a watermelon.' and Nate would probably kill _him_ if he incapacitated their hacker in the middle of a con.

So he keeps on watching and feels sympathy for Parker well up. If she were learning new fighting moves… he'd absolutely offer his help – and if it were just to see her beat the crap out of Hardison again – but _dancing_? Not his kind of… "Oh, Parker… it's really easy, you know. You just have to… wait. Eliot, you can dance, can't you?"

Wha… no. No, he can't. Okay, maybe a bit. "Only bits of square dance." Crap, why couldn't he just say that he has no clue about dancing and just gone off to his room? Yeah, okay, maybe… maybe because Parker looking a little forlorn always kind of gets to him, at least since he let down his guard a little. Hey, but there's no reason for Sophie to give him that questioning look. He feels compelled to add, "What? I grew up on _horse farms_, not in plantation mansions."

It doesn't really satisfy Sophie though – when does anything ever until she gets what she wants? – and she pushes on. "Okay, okay, I get that." Oh, maybe she will let it… "But… didn't you once say fighting was like dancing?" What? No, no, no, he never said _that_. He wouldn't ever say that about f… alright, yes, he did. Dammit. "Yes, I think you did. Now, come on, come over here. I think Parker needs someone else to lead her."

No. No way he's gonna lead _Parker_. Thankfully, Parker seems to think the same, judging by her scrunched nose but Sophie doesn't take no for an answer. Instead she does her soft bullying thing again and simply prods and ushers them until they find themselves standing opposite each other and before he knows it, she put Parker's hand in his and put the other hand on the small of Parker's back and… do they _really_ have to stand _that_ close to each other?

Ever since that little _something_ in the old office last year he'd taken care to always put a little corporeal distance between them, at _least_ 20 inches – and preferably more. And suddenly all that effort just went to hell because_ Sophie just wouldn't give it a rest_. It's all back; the urge to kiss her, grab her, see what she can do with those legs beside making cartwheels and crawling along poles… "Now, Parker, remember: Eliot leads, you follow."

"Sure," Parker just says and then adds in an absolutely casual – even a little bored – voice, "As long as he doesn't want to stay on top in bed, I'm fine with it." . He needs to get out of here. Really, really fast… so urgently, in fact that it's one of the very few occasions where he actually wishes Nate and Hardison would run into some trouble… but of course _now_ they don't do him the favor of calling and saving him from having to be _way_ too close to Parker and all her enticing cluelessness.

"Eliot?" Dismayed, he actually has to blink and a look at Sophie confirms him that she noticed he just was a little… distracted because she gives him a minute raise of her eyebrow… telling him she knows _exactly_ what's going on here. Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck. "You do know how to lead a lady during a dance, right?"

He's got two options now. Fight… or flight. All his instincts scream at him that this is so very much a situation where he should turn his back and get the hell out of here but then he looks at Parker and there's this hint of a smirk on her face… challenging him. Okay. Fine. Parker wants a challenge, Parker gets a challenge. He answers her with a look that tells her that she should be careful not to bite off more than she can chew and tells Sophie, "'course I do. But the lady better behave herself."

With that… it's settled. And really, what can be so hard about dancing? After all, fighting _is_ like dancing, in a certain way at least, and fighting is something he's _really_ good at… and he certainly won't let _Parker_ get the better of him. No way.


	3. If It Happened To You

**A/N:** Aaand... we're back. I'm still a little overwhelmed about the response to this and I can tell you that it makes finding my footing in this fandom a lot easier. So again... thank you :) Also, everyone thank **mac** that she now even keeps asking about the Leverage bunnies (usually, she only asks about the Stargate bunnies) and keeps poking at me to publish when I'm done with another piece. Anyway, this one takes places a while after _You Can Dance_, during the time in Season Two when Sophie was gone.

Also... language warning. Seriously.

PS.: Not sure who of you was the one asking about the dancing job (hey, I even already got a title... that's a sign... probably) but let's just say... I'm _thinking_ about it.

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**If It Happened To You**

"_It's my party, and I'll cry if I want to  
Cry if I want to, cry if I want to  
You would cry too if it happened to you."_

_Lesley Gore, "It's my Party"_

The urge to call Sophie is starting to get really strong but he's got the distinctive feeling that they won't let him talk to her in private anyway. Also… she would probably give him as much hell as the rest gave him.

He still has no idea why Nate and Hardison went up against _him_ because _he_ was the one saving all their asses when the con went down the drain because Parker… he doesn't even know what Parker actually _did_ but it ended in a big mess and probably another search warrant on all their heads. Not to mention a client they probably have to tell that he can say goodbye to the custody over his little girl. _Dammit_.

Okay, so before he went down to the pub to get some 'coffee', Nate told them they'd just have to regroup, start from scratch, take another approach… and sleep on it, for at least a night. And he'd been ready to do that, despite his seething anger at Parker for ruining this and forcing him to shoot people and making him worry about her, worry himself sick… Ah, fuck. And what's worse is that… _Hardison just won't stop shouting at him_.

"Hey, are you listenin'? I'm talkin' to you, man!" God, he wants to shut the hacker up, make him stop his ranting… he's just _this_ close to just turning around, smacking Hardison a good one and being done with it. "Ey, _listen_ to me!"

Curling his hands into fists to try and curb all the furious energy in him that makes him such a good fighter, he stops his walking out of the door but doesn't turn around. His voice is low and has a dangerous tint to it when he says, "Leave me alone, Hardison, or I swear someone will get hurt. And it won't be me."

Hardison, however… doesn't know what's good for him. "You know what? I don't care. Come on, gimme that punch." Keep yourself under control, he thinks. Control is the most important thing you ever learned. "I can take it. You think I can't but I can. I don't care. As long as you stop treatin' Parker like that."

Parker… what's Parker got to do with it? Okay, yes, he'd taken some of his anger out on her, telling her… telling her he's fed up with all her antics and her solos and that head of hers where no one ever knows what's going in there… if there _is_ anything going on in there at all. But he had every reason – still _has_ – to do that. Pissed at Hardison, he does turn around now and… catches a short look at Parker, sitting on the stairs, curled up and peering down at them, the expression on her face unreadable.

He forces himself to look away and concentrate on Hardison again. "She blew the con, Hardison. You really wanna tell me I ain't got any right to kick her ass for that?" Again, his gaze flickers up to the top of the stairs and Parker's still there, still staring down at them… at _him_. Crap. He hates it when she looks at him like that; like she can see right through him, see what's going on in his head… see the clamp around his heart that appeared when those goons found her and she told them they just put a gun to her head. Even now the damn thing isn't quite gone and the thought of what could have happened still makes him feel like something is suffocating him. But that's really not the point here.

"You stinkin' asshole! Don't you get it? She ain't to blame for what happened!" Yeah, right. He'd seen her movements, seen that she'd been sloppy to cover up her tracks… she had, hadn't she?

He really doesn't want to discuss that now because it's late and he's got bruises all over and there are Parker's looks burning down from the staircase, now looking strangely… guilty? Incomprehensive? And dammit, what's it to him how she looks at him? And why does Hardison keep on telling him she isn't to blame? "Sure she is. Didn't you…"

"No, she's _not_. She could have never have seen that one coming. You'd have seen that if you'd just looked a _little_ closer. But _no_, all _you_ did was brood and… ey; you _wanted_ her to fail, didn't you? Ever since we started working together, you been _waiting_ for her to…" The only reason why he doesn't just put his fist into Hardison's face right now is that Parker's still watching and he knows she's fond of Hardison and for some reason she's fond of _him_ also and something tells her she wouldn't take too well to them exchanging blows, especially after something that almost got her killed. Also, Nate would probably not exactly approve of them ruining his furniture _again_.

He _never_ wanted Parker to fail. In fact… in fact he loves it when she's all confident and gleeful after a successful job. For Hardison to even _suggest_ that he wants Parker to fail… No. But there's one thing… one thing Hardison… may actually be right about. He _could_ have looked closer. And he _could_ have been cooler about this, not let himself be driven to red hot fury the moment they had a visual of Parker with the gun to her head.

Fuck.

He really, really, _really_ wishes Sophie were here. She would have defused this situation with grace and style, not let Hardison get all riled up and him have to embarrass himself and Parker looking so damn miserable. Nate might be the brain but Sophie… Sophie was the heart, the glue that held them all together and now that she's gone on some self-discovery trip… everything seems to fall apart. He shakes his head. "Know what, Hardison, I'm gonna…"

But apparently, Hardison is on a roll now. "Ey, she got feelings, too, man! She ain't one of your usual hussies, okay? Parker got feelings and you've got no right to trample on them!" He _knows_ that. Lord knows he does. The fact that Parker can't always express feelings accordingly doesn't mean that she's incapable of _having_ them. It's just that… for Hardison it seems so easy to read her, see if there's something genuinely distressing her or if she's just being Parker and he _envies_ Hardison that.

Maybe… maybe that's what this is all about. That there might be _something_ between Parker and him – it's been a few weeks since Sophie's dancing lesson and Parker still invades his mind at any given moment, even his _dreams_ – but _Hardison_… Hardison _understands_ her, something he never really accomplished and something that's been bugging him ever since they started working together. Or, to make it short… this is about plain good old fucking jealousy. And he reacted all wrong to it… let Parker get caught in the crossfire.

He takes a long, deep breath but before he can say something Hardison shakes his head and says, "You know what, this is wastin' my time. I don't even know why I'm talkin' to you. I think I'm gonna talk to the one who _really_ needs some attention now." No… no, he won't. Not this time.

Stepping past Hardison and into the direction of the staircase, he simply shakes his head and murmurs. "No. _I_ will." Hardison sputters and rants a little more but he tuned him out the moment he was behind him and now he's slowly walking up the staircase, to where Parker's still sitting, still curled up, still with her face inscrutable… no, not inscrutable. Blank. Fuck.

And yeah, when he's just two stairs away from her, she suddenly jumps up, takes the last two steps and walks into the room. He knows he should probably leave her alone because when she's in that kind of mood – caged animal driven into the defense is probably what describes it best – she becomes unpredictable. But he's got the feeling that he needs to clean this up _now_ or she won't ever trust him again.

Carefully, he takes a step towards her, holding up the palms of his hands. "Parker… for what it's worth, I'm sorry," he tells her in a low voice, so as not to startle her.

She's regarding him warily and her arms are folded tightly in front of her chest. After another moment of seizing him up, she almost blurts out, "It's alright."

The hell it is. It came way too fast and there's a reason why she looks like she's ready to bolt. So he keeps on talking in that low, soothing voice. "No… no, it's not." When she doesn't say anything, he dares running his hand through his hair and add, "I… went off on you for all the wrong reasons."

She keeps her arms folded but her stature somewhat relaxes and she states matter-of-factly, "You thought I screwed up."

With Parker, he realizes, it's all in the details. And right now, a few little things – like her eyes and her fingers – tell him how much that must have hurt her. Unfortunately the first thing that comes out of his mouth is, "Yeah." As soon as he said it, he moves to correct it, trying to salvage from the wreckage what's still there. "No. Look, I just…"

"You _know_ I don't screw up." Still matter-of-factly, but now with a definite hurt and angry undertone to it. "Not when the team needs me. Not anymore." Starting to become more agitated. Crap. That's getting to her way more than he thought. "I know you think I'm crazy and maybe I am but I'm not _dumb_ or _incompetent_."

Damn. He really, really screwed this one up. He can't help but take another step towards her and he has to give her credit for still trying to look very much like it doesn't even interest her. He takes a deep breath, resolved not to let it _all_ go FUBAR. "I _know_ you aren't. And I never… I wouldn't…"

She narrows her eyes and that's what tells him how angry she _really_ is. "You _yelled_ at me, Eliot. And you can't even tell me _why_?"

Unfortunately, she's just so _right_. He was being an idiot. "I was… I'm sorry, Parker." He can see that she doesn't believe him so he only has one option left: be completely honest with her. "But I was just… I was _worried_ about you."

For a moment there's silence and then she looks at him, genuinely puzzled. "Why would you be _worried_ about me?"

_Jesus_. She _really_ has no clue why he would be so worried about her that he could become so furious at her for placing herself in harm's way. "Because I…" Another puzzled frown. "What I meant to say is that…" Why can't he be like Hardison? Hardison would just spill the news, no matter if he confused her even further with that or made himself vulnerable. "I am…"

He realizes that words won't do. He was never really good with them. Actions, though… actions are more his style. But he can't help growling "Dammit, woman, don't you see?" before taking that one last step towards her and bend down to kiss her.

At first… there's no reaction at all and he's ready to withdraw as fast as he'd been with kissing her but suddenly he feels her respond and he's even dimly aware of her arms unfolding and making it possible for him to take her in his arms and deepen the kiss… until oxygen starts to become an issue.

He's not quite sure who breaks the kiss first but when he looks into Parker's face now he sees understanding. Wary understanding, but understanding none the less. He half expects her to make some remark about it, one of her off-hand comments that always perplex him but all he gets is her biting her lip and looking down and he realizes how hard this all was on her and how tired and confused and hurting she must be.

Wanting to say something – _anything_ – he opens his mouth but she beats him to it. "Drive me home, Eliot?" she asks in a small voice, smaller than he has ever heard before of her and it does tug at his heart strings. Actually, more than tears would have.

So all he does is swallow and say, "Yeah," and then he can't help giving her a kiss on the forehead before gently steering her to the exit, past Hardison who is still giving him dark looks, down to his truck… off to her place and he silently swears to himself he won't _ever_ hurt her like that again and that he will make it all up to her once she's ready for it.


	4. What a Diff'rence

**A/N: **So, um... I'd like to apologize to Eliot for putting him through this... but then again he should have known that it was bound to happen :P Anyway, I think it's time someone makes Leverage available to **mac** because the quality _and_ quantity of her snark increase with every story I send her. I think she should get some reward for that ;)

Also, language warning. Yes, again.**  


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**What a Diff'rence**

"_What a diff'rence a day made  
Twenty-four little hours  
Brought the sun and the flowers  
Where there used to be rain."_

_Dinah Washington, "What a Diff'rence a Day Made"_

Nate knows something, he's sure of that. But then again, he wouldn't be Nate if he didn't know what went on between Parker and him last night. Also, it's probably not _that_ hard to guess. He did leave with Parker in tow, after all. Of course it wasn't the first time he drove Parker home… but probably the first time she made an effort to stay close to him and he didn't discourage her.

Instead he hadn't been able to resist the little touches you use to comfort people, reassure them that things are gonna be okay. Brushing his fingers against hers, putting a hand on the small of her back while walking out the door, touching her shoulder shortly before the engine the engine… you name it. They hadn't talked much on the way back to her place but he'd been content with it. That she was sitting beside him was enough.

He'd realized that the effect she had on him was far more multidimensional than he'd originally thought. Her presence doesn't only arouse him or make him jittery – not _all_ the time at least – it also… it calmed him down, knowing she's still there, still talking to him. But yeah, during that ride… of _course_ at some point the atmosphere had started to charge up again, with the tension he knew so well by then… "Hey, you nearly missed our exit."

What the…? Damn, should concentrate on his driving again. For some reason he also feels compelled to growl, "Did not," for good measure before he takes that damn exit.

Nate, though, throws him one of those looks you just don't want your boss throwing you. He thinks it's covert but of course there's no way you could have overlooked that one. Even from the corners of his eyes, he can see that it's a mixture between smug and worried, if that is even possible. Thankfully, Nate keeps all the crap he could have given him now to himself so he can concentrate on driving again.

Or he _could_ if his mind didn't think it a good idea to keep wandering back to last night. He's still not quite sure how they actually ended up in her place – maybe he shouldn't have asked her if she was hungry and suggested she eat some _real_ food for a change knowing full well where _that_ could lead – but what he _does_ remember is that he just couldn't get enough of that feeling of being close to her. The irony of that did not escape him, of course, but that was really no reason not to respond when she'd started to kiss him in that sorry excuse of a kitchen of hers.

He can't help but allow himself a very, very small smile at that thought. Originally, he'd wanted to wait, hadn't wanted to force himself on Parker… but Parker never had much regard for best-laid plans and had silenced him pretty fast when a voice in his head that sounded suspiciously much like Sophie's had made him argue lamely – and kind of unwillingly – that she really didn't have to do anything she didn't want to do.

Turned out Parker knew very much what she wanted and she had wanted it right there, as soon as she could. Apparently… he'd affected her just the way she had affected him. A grin crosses his face and he needs to mask it with a look over his shoulder facing away from Nate because he's pretty sure that Nate would notice _that_.

But damn, he's got every reason to grin. The thing he liked most about Parker – that she is always straight forward – rings true in _every_ aspect of her life and once he'd gotten over his initial albeit rather feeble determination not to ruin this by taking it too fast, he'd come to appreciate just _how_ straight forward Parker can be.

He remembers her fingers running through his hair and sneaking under his shirt and tugging at his waistband… so vividly, in fact, that he has to grip the wheel a little tighter and clear his throat as discreetly as he can to remind himself that they're on a job and most of all that Nate can be so damn perceptive when he wants to. Unfortunately, it doesn't help much because jeez, the rough surface of the steering wheel reminds him of how soft Parker's skin felt when he lifted up her shirt.

Smooth creamy-white skin, soft lips, long fingers in all the right places on his body… "Something on your mind, Eliot?"

"No, just in his pants." What… she is _so_ gonna pay for _that_. But yeah… he should have expected that. He really shouldn't have thought he'd be safe just because she wasn't in the car with them. Dammit, he _knows_ how unpredictable Parker is and how uncanny she can be. Also… her voice, directly in his ear, saying things like that, with a hint of smugness to her tone? _Not_ helping.

Oh hey, but at least it made Nate nearly choke. "And how would _you_ know that, huh?" Yeah, of _course_ Hardison would pick up on that.

He's about to snap something back because as much trouble as there is between Hardison and him, he likes the hacker enough that he doesn't want him to learn of the… shift in the relationship between Parker and him that way but Nate's faster. "Cut the chatter, kids, we're still on a job here. Hardison, I want you to keep tracking the money transfers. And Parker, lay low. They know your face and we really don't want another gun to your head, do we?" _He_ certainly doesn't. God, he still shudders at that image and that… scares him a little.

But what scares him more is that after Hardison and Parker acknowledge – Parker with that particular undertone that tells him she's not happy and she's burning for getting back at the goons so he silently promises her he'll try to beat them up in front of security cameras when he gets to them so she can see it – Nate suddenly takes the ear bug out and carefully wraps it in a piece of cloth… and motions him to take out _his_ ear bug as well. He's tempted to just ignore the gesture but Nate has this look on his face that says pretty clearly that you shouldn't mess with him.

Alright, he thinks, here we go and grudgingly gives his ear bug to Nate. He puts it away as carefully as his own and then asks almost casually, "So… was it worth it?" Worth what, he almost asks back but that would have been pointless. He knows exactly what Nate means. Worth… worth the very possible trouble this could cause for the team. Worth alienating Hardison. Worth possibly screwing it up with Parker as well.

For a moment, he allows himself to think back to last night again. It had been rushed, heated, raw… and oh so good. Parker _is_ as flexible in bed as she is when dodging laser beams. But there are a few things… apparently no one ever told her. For example that not all men left the moment they were done with the action. She'd seemed genuinely astonished at the whole idea of passing the _whole_ night together but once he'd made clear he certainly would _not_ leave she'd been quite taken by the whole thing. He smiles again and then decides to leave it at, "Gentleman don't kiss and tell, Nate."

"Right," is all Nate says at first and it does sound like he's in a bit of a huff… but he also knows him well enough by now to know prying any further is no use anyway. But of course that's not the last word on it so it doesn't really surprise him when Nate speaks up again. "You know," he says, sounding casual again but with a kind of cautioning undertone, "if you hurt her, you're a dead man. And I won't even have to lift a finger."

Oh. Okay… he'd had fleetingly wondered what Nate would say to this but he hadn't really counted on Nate caring so much for Parker to resort to actually threatening him. It does disturb him a little so he can't help but be a little glib. "I'm sure of that."

He hopes that the matter is settled with that but Nate doesn't do him the favor. Instead he just goes on in the same tone as before, "Seriously, Sophie would have your hide and I'd let her."

Now he has to roll his eyes and an irritated note creeps into his voice. "Yeah, I get it." He really does. In fact… suddenly he can imagine pretty vividly what Sophie might have to say about it all and dammit, is that a blush he feels creeping on?

So maybe _now_ Nate will let it… "I mean it. I want you to be careful with Parker. She may not look like it but…"

Alright, that's enough. "I _know_. You ain't the only one who cares about her, Nate." Whoa. It wasn't supposed to come out with _that_ much of conviction. It scares him a little and a short look to his right tells him that it also surprised Nate.

After a moment that can only be described as 'shocked second', Nate clears his throat and then tries to get back into his conversationalist tone, "Just saying, you know…" but there's still lingering bewilderment in his voice. He can't help but be a little amused at that. It's certainly better than wondering about why he just told Nate quite forcefully about caring for Parker. Well, or thinking about last night… no, there it is again.

God, he can't get enough of the sight of Parker on top of him, taking matters into her hands – so to speak – and being… _amazing_, in more than one way. Now he almost regrets they didn't actually _talk_ about it, at least the morning after. But Nate had woken them up by calling with a new plan and had wanted to see them ASAP and somehow _talking_ hadn't been on their agenda until now.

Unfortunately, now that he has time to think… he realizes Nate's concern doesn't lie only with Parker but also with the team and the effect this might have on _all_ of them. Yeah, great… he should have thought of that _before_ he had Parker on her kitchen table. Well, and in her bedroom. And… no, better not go there now. He sighs, "Look, it'll be fine. One way or the other, it'll be fine."

Of course, he'd rather have it one way than the other… whatever that might mean. Dammit, even when she's not there, she's messing with his head. He starts to realize that when he surrendered to her yesterday, he had done more than just scratch an itch. Jesus, this is going to become so much more complicated now. Thank God years of being on his own helped him to acquire a fairly good poker face. Apparently it worked since Nate simply replies, "Yeah, it better."

Hopefully… this will be the end of it because he can't afford losing concentration any more and it's difficult enough with events from last night replaying in his head in the most unsuitable moments because they always make him want to simply turn around, throw the job to the wind and explore this interesting new turn in his relationship with Parker further. However, Nate still has one more thing to add, "Oh, and when you tell Hardison about it… don't be an ass. Both of you, actually."

Okay, it's really time he puts an end to that conversation so he frowns and nearly growls, "Yeah, 'course. We aren't complete idiots. Now, give me back that ear bug. I'm pretty sure Hardison's all over the place because he couldn't reach us for five precious minutes." Or because Parker just went and told Hardison how exactly she acquired the knowledge of what's going on in his pants but he's pretty sure Nate knows that well enough himself.

At least his face tells him so and so they're both just a little bit relieved when all they hear when putting back the ear bugs is a stream of obscenities from Hardison who tells them what exactly will await them if they ever just go off the grid without telling him again. Could have gone worse and while Nate works on calming down the hacker, he can't help but smile a little when Parker throws in one of those dry off-handed comments.

Yeah… next time, he thinks, next time he'll show her that sometimes slow and elaborate isn't so bad after all. And maybe next time he won't chicken out and tell her the main reason he stayed was that sometimes even he got damn tired and he needed a place to crash anyway. Maybe next time… he won't feel the need to find a stupid excuse to stay and just… do it.


	5. Epilogue: You Amaze Me

**A/N:** So we're here with the Epilogue to the little series of snapshots :) Also... okay, I admit it, I'd planned to take another song for this ("Tonight" by Reamonn, if anyone was interested) but then I came across that nice little Eliot/Parker fanvid (what? Now and then I really like those) on YouTube and I just... um... had to use it. Yeah. Also, I probably found a way to make it possible for **mac** to watch Leverage after all! Yay!

PS.: I Have another piece that's more or less summing up the _Fragments_ from Parker's POV. I'm not quite sure if I'll publish within this story or on its own, so be on the look out for it :)  
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**You Amaze Me**

"_So if you're crazy I don't care you amaze me  
Oh you're a stupid girl, oh me, oh my, you talk  
I die, you smile, you laugh, I cry  
And only a girl like you could be lonely  
And it's a crying shame, if you would think the same  
A boy like me's just irresistible."_

_The Fratellis, "Whistle For The Choir"_

It still amazes him. It's been three months now since they started this – whatever _this_ is – and the world still hasn't come to an end. Of course Hardison had not exactly taken it lightly when it somehow had gotten out that Parker and he weren't only teammates anymore but after some sulking and a rather violent outbreak – he'd really held back and Hardison probably knew that but since he seemed to feel better after planting his fist in his face he figured it had been the right thing to do – things have evened out.

Despite Nate's and Sophie's – and his own, mind you – concerns they can still work together, be professional, keep private what should be kept private… well, mostly. Now and then it's just too tempting to grab her for a quick kiss in an elevator or just before she's about to throw herself off a rooftop – only when they're alone, of course. Okay and it's just impossible to resist Parker when she thinks that a short stop to catch your breath when being pursued by the cops or a mob of goons is just the right moment for shoving him into the nearest wall and get her share of adrenalin filled kisses.

But the best moments… the best moments are moments like now, deep in the night when it's just them. As far as he can tell, Parker's deeply asleep after an eventful day and an evening that had been just as eventful… only with _different_ events. Unlike him, she's usually asleep after just a few minutes and wakes up only rarely during the night. It still bewilders him because despite her not talking about it he knows she must have been through hell for the greater part of her childhood… maybe even of her life. But maybe her mind just deals differently with it and spares her the nightmares one would expect.

At least he hopes so, being on pretty intimate terms with nightmares himself. He hadn't been exactly lying when he'd told Sophie he only sleeps 90 minutes a day… he just never told her it's not intentionally for the most part. Or rather not intentionally to save time as he'd made her believe. It's more like it's his way of dealing with what years of liberating Croatia, doing classified stuff in Pakistan and generally putting your life on the line for people who were too lazy or too much of a coward to do it themselves do to the mind.

But when Parker's lying beside him, he doesn't feel the need to fill the time that he's awake with busying himself. He can just lie here, listen to her deep regular breathing, feel her warmth beside him, smell her unique scent that's somewhere between soapy clean and a darker note… and everything's alright.

To be honest, it's a little embarrassing. Since he acknowledged that he just isn't made for a life behind picket fences and left his old existence behind for a life of shadows, danger and violence, he'd prided himself in being independent, in not needing anyone beside himself. He'd graciously taken the opportunities of physical action with women life had thrown in his way but he'd been careful not to form attachments.

That had worked just fine… until Viktor Dubenich had walked in and he'd signed up for working on a team with the world's most insane thief and a hacker that seemed to have an uncanny knack for being able to memorize practically every bit of pop culture ever produced… and then had decided to double cross them all. If he hadn't done that and hadn't Nate offered them a chance at revenge, he'd have walked back into the shady demimonde he'd lived in before and never even looked back.

But he didn't and now he has Parker and everything is different. They still haven't talked about it but he has the feeling they don't need to. Parker would probably just be confused about it anyway because he just has the feeling that she may have learned how to pick a lock in under ten seconds all by herself but that 'talking' had never been on her curriculum. And he's fine with that. He never was a great talker and as long as she's just _there_ and accepts him with her, things are right.

She… "You gonna stop that brooding thing anytime soon?" What… hey, she was supposed to be asleep. Why is she suddenly… "Because if you don't, I'm gonna hurt you." Right. As if she could, half asleep as she is. But… okay, right now, she's deadly adorable. Half turned around, the eyes barely open, a little pout on her face and the blonde hair a mess… he can't help but get up on his elbow and put a kiss first to her shoulder then to the crook of her neck.

It elicits a content little sigh from her that makes him all warm inside and he puts an arm around her waist. Settling in with his chest to her back it occurs to him that she could be right and that he should probably start to let go a little of the whole 90 minutes a day sleep thing. He _is_ awfully tired all of a sudden and isn't not allowing yourself to sleep, because things you never wanted to see again could resurface the same thing as running away from them?

So since he's not a coward… he might as well do what everything inside of him is _begging_ him to do. Closing the last inches of free space between them, he closes his eyes and finally just lets _go_… and that feels so _good_.


End file.
